Traiteur Dev Blog #4: When Everything Clicks

Welcome back to the Traiteur dev blog! This week, we’ll be talking about a very special moment in game development.

It’s a moment somewhat early on in development, when the team has all been working very independently upon their specific pieces of the game (the game development “puzzle,” so to speak) and all of these pieces start to come together.

This is when everything clicks for the first time, and it’s a wonderful experience in every game’s development.

We’ve finally had that first moment where everything clicked in Traiteur, and I’d love to share it with you!

The Game-y Void

It began, as always, with a looming deadline. While all of our deadlines are self-imposed, sometimes the world gives us a little push.

Recently, we’ve had to come up with various demos of the game for local events around the state of Louisiana. Even more recently, we were making a demo for our submission for consideration in the PAX West Indie MEGABOOTH. (We actually got to talk to the leader of the booth, Kelly — check that out here!).

Prior to that point, the game was still very much in an alpha state where the entire game’s story was playable, but all assets were prototypes and it looked largely incomplete. This is how games exist for much of development when the core gameplay and its systems — your player and how they interact within the game’s world — are being built.

Personally, from my perspective as a producer, this is the point where I feel the most left out. It’s largely intangible work that the wonderful programmers are building, while the incredible artists are off making the very first artwork for the game (3D models, or in this case ASCII art, etc.).

However, for the first time, everything finally came together in Traiteur.

As we prepared our demo for the PAX submission, I booted it up to take a gander at this version of the game and ensure that there weren’t any major issues.

I clicked through the tutorial and chuckled at the opening dialogue for the ten thousandth time, and as we loaded into the Forest, my breath was taken away.

The first final ASCII art was being implemented, this time in the form of trees. It really was starting to look detailed! Then, the player emoticon was also implemented for the first time along with the visual representation of health (more on that in future blog posts!).

I included a photo to show this exact moment!

We also had ambient sound playing that really made you feel like you were in the forest itself, as well as awesome custom sound effects built from the ground up for the game (special thanks to Elise Kates for the great work she’s done!). Enemies groaned, shots made noise, and the world was alive in an instant.

For the very first time, it was no longer just an idea we were throwing together; rather, this was the very first moment where it really and truly felt like a living, breathing world that we had created.

As creators, this is a pivotal moment. It’s validation that your ideas are coming together as you envisioned them.

But more importantly, this is the moment where it starts to feel “real” — no longer is it just something you’re working on. Now, it’s a beast of its own that’s one step closer to being in players’ hands! And that’s the moment I live for.

Onward and Upward!

This was a more personal update rather than anything showcasing new parts of Traiteur, so I hope you still enjoyed this week’s update!

Next week we’ll finally dive into a bigger discussion on gameplay, as promised last week. :)